10 May 2002

Manohar Joshi not new to controversy

NEW DELHI: If Shiv Sena leader and Union industries minister ManoharJoshi is elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha, it will be for the firsttime that a politician indicted by a commission of inquiry forfuelling communal violence on innocent citizens and accused by a highcourt of being party to an illegal land deal makes it to the covetedpost.

It will also be the first time that a Speaker will be ‘‘remotecontrolled'' by another politician.

When Joshi was chief minister of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena supremo BalThackeray frequently boasted of his powers to ‘‘remote control'' hisnominee. On Wednesday, Joshi acknowledged that even as Speaker hewould be subject to Thackeray's manipulation.

Colourless but controversial, Joshi rose to national prominence duringthe Bombay riots of 1993 when he was widely seen as instigatingattacks by Shiv Sena supporters on innocent Muslims.

As chief minister of Maharashtra, he dropped all criminal chargesagainst Thackeray and tried his best to scuttle the SrikrishnaCommission of inquiry into the riots but was unsuccessful.

His apprehensions were well-founded since the Commission did not mincewords in indicting him for his role: ‘‘The attitude of the Shiv Senaas reflected in a Time interview given by Thackeray and its doctrineof ‘retaliation' as expounded by (Madhukar) Sarpotdar and (Manohar)Joshi... were responsible for the Sainiks vigilantism. Because somecriminal Muslims killed innocent Hindus in one corner of the city, theShiv Sainiks ‘retaliated' against several innocent Muslims in othercorners of the city''.

When the report came out, Joshi, as chief minister, rejected itsfindings and consigned it to the administrative equivalent of thedustbin. Srikrishna's findings, he told the assembly, were ‘‘biased,anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim''.

Shortly thereafter, Joshi was to have another brush with JusticeSrikrishna, but this time, he was unable to raise the ‘‘anti-Hindu''canard.

In March 1999, the Bombay High Court criticised Joshi for abusing hispowers as chief minister of Maharashtra in order to sell a plot ofland in Pune originally earmarked for a school. The beneficiary was anoutfit controlled by his builder son-in-law, Girish Vyas.

The court said Joshi had ‘‘pressurised officials'' to clear theillegal deal and rejected his protestations of innocence.

‘‘We do not expect a chief minister to file an affidavit like apettifogging official to mislead the court'', a Bench consisting ofJustices Parkar and Srikrishna stated sternly. Stung by their ruling,Joshi quit his seat in the legislative assembly.

A month earlier, he had already been stripped of his chiefministership by Thackeray thanks to infighting within the Sena.

As Speaker, Joshi will frequently be called upon to rule onaccusations that MPs have used unparliamentary language.

However, in his deposition before the Srikrishna Commission, hedefended the use of the offensive term ‘landya' to describe Muslims inthe Sena mouthpiece Saamna, even though he acknowledged the word waslikely to cause hurt.